What do a business author, a financial journalist, a medical illustrator, and a software architect have in common? If I said advice on innovation, would it surprise you?<\/p>\n
Practically Radical<\/em><\/strong>, <\/strong>William C. Taylor\u2019s latest book<\/strong><\/a>, is a wonderful thought provoker, full of stories of companies and their leaders who take a novel approach to improve profits and create new enterprises. One of Taylor’s main concepts addresses the idea of engaging customers and in some cases any<\/em> interested persons for ideas for new products, solutions to business and technical problems and even product design. Although companies are constantly receiving feedback from customers, Taylor encourages readers to reach beyond customers – and well beyond the responsible employee group – to track, value and encourage participation from the human race.<\/p>\n This is very reminiscent of the data presented by financial journalist James Surowiecki <\/strong>in The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations<\/em>. Surowiecki asserts that ideas submitted by a wide range of people are better and more innovative than those of a single individual or an ongoing committee.<\/p>\n Software architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas illustrates the power of collective intelligence in his demo of the Photosynth project. Photosynth technology takes Flicker photographs, which include partial images (e.g., of a structure or landscape) submitted by anyone, anywhere and intelligently combines the partial images of a subject (e.g., the Eiffel Tower) to create a perfect image of the complete structure for all to use and enjoy. This convergence of independent images to create a whole may lead to new discoveries, connections or historical revelations drawn from the wider audience that the picture now reaches. See the TED Talk, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth<\/a>.<\/p>\n